Today In History, Nov. 9: Kristallnacht

1938: "Kristallnacht"

On Nov. 9, 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as "Kristallnacht."

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1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II

In 1918, it was announced that Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate; he then fled to the Netherlands.

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1961: The Beatles

In 1961, The Beatles' future manager, Brian Epstein, first saw the group perform at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.

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1965: Northeast Blackout

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began as a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours left 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.

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1967: Cape Kennedy

In 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.

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1970: Charles De Gaulle

In 1970, former French President Charles de Gaulle died at age 79.

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1976: South Africa Apartheid

In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as "illegitimate."

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1986: Mordechai Vanunu

In 1986, Israel revealed it was holding Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who'd vanished after providing information to a British newspaper about Israel's nuclear weapons program. (Vanunu was convicted of treason and served 18 years in prison.)

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1989: Berlin Wall

In 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

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1999: Brandenburg Gate

In 1999, with fireworks, concerts and a huge party at the landmark Brandenburg Gate, Germany celebrated the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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2000: Florida Recount

In 2000, George W. Bush's lead over Al Gore in all-or-nothing Florida slipped beneath 300 votes in a suspense-filled recount, as Democrats threw the presidential election to the courts, claiming "an injustice unparalleled in our history."

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2007: Pervez Musharraf

In 2007, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (pur-VEHZ' moo-SHAH'-ruhv) of Pakistan placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (BEN'-uh-zeer BOO'-toh) under house arrest for a day, and rounded up thousands of her supporters to block a mass rally against his emergency rule.

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2008: China Stimulus Package

2008: John Podesta

Ten years ago: Barack Obama's transition chief, John Podesta, told Fox News Sunday the president-elect planned to review President George W. Bush's executive orders on such things as stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

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2013: Doolittle Raiders

Five years ago: Three of the four surviving Doolittle Raiders who attacked Tokyo in 1942, all in their 90's, offered a final toast to their fallen comrades in a ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.

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2013: Houston Shooting

Five years ago: A house party shooting in suburban Houston left two teens dead.

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2017: Roy Moore

One year ago: The Washington Post quoted an Alabama woman as saying that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama had sexual contact with her when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney; three other women told the Post that Moore had approached them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s.

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2017: Trump Beijing

One year ago: During a visit to Beijing, President Donald Trump criticized what he called a "very one-sided and unfair" trade relationship between the U.S. and China, but said he doesn't blame China for having taken advantage of the U.S.